like you need to get back out and and tell your story. You can help a lot of people. You're doing this big thing and inspiring that next generation because rebuilding like on a solid foundation, it's the only way to do it. When was the inflection point that really like took that to the next level? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today.
I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Want to give a huge shout out to our newest partner, Hope Plumbing. Now, Hope Plumbing serves Indianapolis in the surrounding areas when it comes to all things plumbing. Obviously, that includes sewer and drain, water heaters, water softeners, leak repairs, sump pump, gas lines, plumbing inspections, reverse osmosis system installation, router services, downspout installation, and septic tanks. What don't these guys do? Whenever I have trouble, I make sure to call Hope Plumbing.
They always do a great job on my house. They're going to do a great job on your house. Go to hopeming. com to check them out. Today I'm joined by Matt Mason, a seasoned country singer songwriter whose early love for traditional country music set him on a path from Triton Central High School in Fairland, Indiana to the stages of Nashville, Tennessee. Overcoming personal challenges and adversity, including a battle with addiction, Matt's inspiring journey took him from opening for Charlie Daniels at 16 to winning CMT's Next Superstar in 2011.
Now, as he gears up for a triumphant return with new music in 2024, his story continues to resonate with fans both in Indiana and beyond. Matt, welcome to Get In. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Man, I am I am pumped up about this. So, not many I mean, I put out probably a hundred episodes over the last two years.
Not many people know, and I don't get to talk about it a ton, but I am a country music buff. Like I remember riding around in uh late 90s, early 2000s in my dad's truck listening to I mean at the time like now they're classics but at the time they were like you know the best of the best then and and just the the early influence country music had on my life and from work ethic to the way you treat people. I've just it's always resonated with me. I mean going from a town of 1,200 people u now I live here in Indianapolis but I always have some some small town roots similar to yourself right. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Isn't that weird that those are considered classics now? Yeah. Well, I mean, dude, like in the past year, right, Toby Keith, like that was my childhood. The first song I could ever sing every word to was uh Who's Your Daddy by uh by Toby Keith and then it was right after that was uh I want to talk about me. Yeah.
And just like because he he says my Indiana in there, right? Classic line. He does. That's right. Uh well well talk to me, man. Where was uh that first moment that you got introduced to to country music or music in general and where it started making an impact on your life?
Man, I was first introduced um via my dad and and my dad was a big fan of, you know, Haggard and Jones and Cash and Whan and all those guys. And that kind of started my love affair with uh with country music and and growing up we went to a real small church in Shelbyville, Indiana, and a little Pentecostal church. And music was a big part of in the Pentecostal realm, music's a big part of of the service. And there was an old man there, Carl Downey, that um him and I hit it off. I loved being around, as a little boy, I loved being around older people, old people, because you could sit and listen to stories. And um it just made more sense to me than hanging out with even people that were my age.
So I spent a lot of time with him, and he kind of helped to cultivate that love. and we would stay in between, you know, Sunday morning, Sunday evening service and and play guitars and um just talk about um the music industry and and you know, music in general. And he was really he was more into bluegrass, you know, Bill Monroe, like he had a guitar that had been signed twice by Bill Monroe and you know, Flatten Scrugs and those kind of Kentucky guys, which is where Carl was from. and he just kind of helped cultivate that love of music into me and I, you know, it just stuck with me and it it kind of hit and it uh it grew from there really. Yeah. And you you picked up your first guitar at 11, I believe.
How quickly did you know that hey, a career in music is something that you want to pursue? Man, I I honestly didn't know. Um, it took a little bit. I my granddad was a trucker and and he drove trucks his whole life and he hauled cattle for a long time out of uh you know out of Arizona back east. So I wanted to be one of three things. I wanted to drive a truck.
I wanted to move out west and be a cowboy or I wanted um to pursue music once I started playing guitar. And and honestly, I mean the music thing, I've kind of been able to do all three a little bit, you know. Um, I mean with we used to travel heavy. We don't travel as much anymore, but when we got to traveling, you know, that's sort of like being a you're traveling, you know, so you have that trucker aspect of it without um the boredom of of uh not having anything fun at the end of the journey, you know. Um, and and then once we bought land and and got horses, I was able to step into that realm. So really, it's been all three childhood dreams that I had have kind of came true.
Yeah. when you're on tour. I mean, like how long you set out and go, you're traveling the country, like how long from when you'd leave home to when you'd return when you're out and generally uh when when we were traveling heavy, we would generally generally leave on a Wednesday and come home Sunday. So, I had I had Monday, Tuesday, full days home, most of Wednesday. Um but we had two kids at the time when I was doing that and and it was hard. It was, and I'll get into that stuff, but um the longest I think the longest run we had was 19 days.
That can be hard. That can be real hard. So, where did you get kind of that first big break where you're like, "Oh, man." Like this music thing is a lot of people, music's a hobby, right? It's a stress relief. It's a creative outlet, but it's like you you do that when you come home from your job at the lumberyard or, you know, working on houses or roofs or whatever.
Where did you get your first big break that and thought this could be a career? We were in spring break. Um, I was probably I 15, 14 or 15 at the time. My dad had heard me uh kind of messing around in my bedroom playing and singing and and he said, "Man, I think there's something there." Uh, but he was nervous, you know, cuz you as a parent, you're very biased to your kids and your kids are the greatest and at least for most parents. So, he was he was nervous about that.
He's like, I don't want this to be like I think he's good and he really sucks bad, you know, whatever. So, when we were on spring break, we went into just a little beach a little beach bar that was open, you know, all ages, all ages could come in. It was a restaurant bar, you know, and they had live music and I got up and played on the person's break and um and the owner came over and and talked to my dad and that kind of let him know like, hey, I think this kid might be might be good, you know, maybe it's not just me as a dad. So he took me to an American Legion there and an old man that was there, his son, the old man's son uh ran a huge festival called the Eastern States Exposition and it was like four or five kind of state fairs but they all kind of congregated together and it was a huge event and so I sent him we went home made a CD at the time CDs were still the thing so went into his studio made that sent it to this guy uh Juliano up in Northeast and he called back and said, "Hey, I have an opening slot.
I book all the bands. I run the whole festival. Um, would you want to open for Charlie Daniels?" And I said, "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I think I do." And so that really Yeah, that might be fun.
That really was the first I mean, I I played the little beach bar, I played the the American Legion, and then was opening for Charlie. And uh it was awesome, man. I I got a chance to meet him and just a good guy, you know, just a solid dude. And I remember after that show, I was waiting in the rain for him to maybe sign my cowboy hat and an old man came out and he said, "Hey, Charlie's already went to bed." I was like, "That's fine." You know, and I was just standing looking at the bus and Charlie come off the bus, invited me on.
And I'll never forget, man, he turned around and he pointed to that guy and he said, "If anybody ever knocks on my bus door again, you come wake me up because that's why we're out here. If I ever get a chance to do this, I want to be like that guy." Hey man, holy smokes. Like I mean that I mean that's what you sign up for a little bit, right? You're you're doing this big thing and inspiring that next generation and it's your first time playing. Like how did the show go?
It was nerve-wracking. There was a lot of people there probably I mean a lot of people to me there was probably 5 to 10,000 people. I think 7500 8,000 would probably be a realistic guess. And it had slowed down a little bit cuz there was some there was some thunderstorms in the area that day. But man, people still came out. I there's something about it just I fell in love with it and I was like, "Yeah, I think this is this is what I want to do."
Were you playing your own songs or were you playing covers or like where did you get the the music that you were playing for that? I was playing covers. I did some Merl Haggard stuff. I did some Whan stuff. Um I I may have thrown in something that I had written at the time. Um as good as I could write at 15 or 16.
I think I was 16 when we did that when we did that date. But I was still coming into my writing and learning and hadn't quite got that figured out yet. Yeah. And and then it ends up right, you graduate uh high school from Triton Central. Yeah. And you moved to Nashville 6 months after graduating.
What kind of got you from performing on stage opening for Charlie Daniels to 6 months after graduating, you're 18, maybe 19 years old, picking up shop and moving down to Nashville. I at the time I I knew I had to be in Nashville. I had to be around where the players were, where the where the movers and shakers were uh, you know, congregating at. And I knew for country music that was Nashville. At least it was at the time. Charlie Daniels booking agent at the time was a man who worked at William Morris Agency and him and Juliano were good friends.
So Juliano had put me in contact with uh Barry was his name when I was about 16 or 17. So, I had been in contact with Barry for a couple of years. Um, probably a year and a half to two years before I moved down. So, I I came down and he was kind of a mentor for me at the time. Somebody at least uh I could bounce things off of, I could talk to, you know, he kind of helped to guide me. Both of the TV shows that I ended up doing, he was the reason I did that.
He was the phone call of, "Hey, we have an opportunity. Would you like to do it?" He really was a huge factor in the beginning part of my career. You go from, you know, playing that, was it the Eastern States? It's called the Eastern States Exposition. The Big E is what they call it.
The Big E. The Big E. So, you go from playing the Big E for your first show, opening up for Charlie Daniels. What did shows two, three, four, and five look like? You know, 10,000 people. It's only up from there or what happens?
It's only down from there. No, there's none of them. Um, it was a long time before we ever did anything like that again. So when I moved to town, I had heard of Tootsies and and so that was the first place I went to and a guy Jimmy Schneider who's passed away since. He looked like he was 130 when when I came to town, but he had played there for years and years and years and was originally from California and and he got up everybody. It was like his it was kind of his stick, right?
like he's the guy when you get to town he wants to get you up because if anything ever happens with you he wants to be able to claim when that kid moved to town I got him up first you know so I went in he always played the afternoon shift and he got me up it took a couple weeks but um owners heard about it gave me a a spot hosting a open mic um on a on Saturday afternoons and it just kind of slowly progressed from there and I So you go from senior in high school at Triton Central moving to Nashville getting to stand up at at Tootsie is the Is that the Orchid Lounge? Yes. Right. Yeah. I' I've been there a time or two. It's uh you know, you get there late at night on a weekend and you kind of piece some stuff together there.
You go from that hosting a Saturday afternoon spot. Is that like prime time on Broadway or is that like No, it it's not necessarily prime time. The the the big shifts are 6 to 10. So, they're 4 hour shifts. They're running 4 hour shifts down there. So, 6 to 10 and 10 to 2.
Um especially on the weekends during the week, Monday through Thursday, 6:00 to 10 is is the best spot cuz people are out that that way they can get up still go to work in the morning. How how long did you have to did you host the open mic for before the next thing came along, the next domino to fall in place? Man, I was I did that for probably a couple two or three months, then got a regular standing shift. I wasn't old enough to be in the bar. Um after 6:00 you had to be 21. So whenever I would take a break, I was only 20, 19 or 20 at the time.
I would have to go outside to take my break. I couldn't stay inside. Um and then Barry called and he said, "Hey, we have an opportunity. There's a show that they've been doing for a few years called Nashville Star. Would you be interested?" And I said, "Absolutely."
So went and tried out for that. That was one of the first things after I came to Nashville. What year is that? Golly, man. That was 2006, I believe. So it was a couple years.
You're like 19, 20 years old at that time. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a couple years after a year and a half, two years after I moved to Nashville at that. And what was the premise of Nashville Star? So it was a live taping that they did and they aired it and then people would vote who stayed on.
It started with 10 contestants and it was only music based. So there was no um cameras weren't on you at other times. Um, you practice through the week. You perform once a week. Um, they put us up in a hotel, the Opryland. We were there for uh, three and a half months for the whole ordeal.
Um, and every, it was every week or every other week they had a new episode come out and uh, people called and voted. How'd you do? I ended up placing fourth on that which was high enough the top four made it to um, a tour that they did. So Chris Young, um, who's had some success in country, he was the first place winner of that that season that I was on. So we went and did after that season had wrapped up, we did a three-month tour of I think it was 34 between 30 and 40 cities. Um, we went out and toured,500 to 2,000 people coming out each night.
So it was it was good crowds. That's kind of where my downturn in my personal life, kind of my downturn started and and then it was a roller coaster until, you know, a few years ago. But yeah. Well, and you're thinking that's kind of like your first Well, I mean, the the Charlie Daniels, right, the Big E, that's like the first big break. But like when building a career in music, you get to go on tour. You're a final four uh like you're a finalist of of this show and then you're going on a, you know, 30 to 40 town tour.
seems like, you know, things are panning up and and it's starting to work out. What started what started happening there uh from a personal side and that, you know, the new fame that that brings? It was for me, man, it was coming from, you know, I'm from Pleasant View, Indiana, which is a it's a spot on a map. You know, it's it's a tiny place. And coming here and being in Nashville was a it was kind of a culture shock to a degree, right? coming from small farm town to to Nashville, which was still relatively small compared to what it is now, but it was a shock.
And then being around just all of the alcohol, the drugs, everything that is involved in the entertainment side that that people know about, but they don't necessarily see all the time, it's there. It's always there. The entertainment industry revolves around like a neverending party. There's always events to go to. there's always these things available, you know, and and to a young guy that I had no kind of I had no grounding at the time. I wasn't I didn't know who I was.
I I was trying to be whatever I needed to be in order to succeed and I just kind of got lost in the mix of all that. You're kind of pursuing the dreams of being a rock star, right? Being a country music star. And the songs all stem from somewhere, right? when people are singing about all the stuff that this life brings, you know, that that inspiration a lot comes from their life experiences. So, where was the moment where you kind of uh admitting or like talking that like about the issue is a lot easier than fixing the issue, right?
So, where was the moment when you maybe realized like, man, this is this isn't this isn't who I want to be or this isn't isn't right. My downturn started in 2005 and it was it wasn't until the end of 2016. So it was about 11 years of and and that was a roller coaster, right? Like I got married during that time. I would stop living hard and I would try to try to clean up a little bit, you know, we got my wife and I got married, we had a daughter. 15 months later we had our son.
That kept me grounded for a time. Then I got back out to doing the same stuff I was doing previously. I was yo-yoing with God really is what I'd been doing. And it's like he would draw, he would let me get just far enough that I wouldn't hang myself on the chain and then kind of pull me back in. I was only stopping what I was doing to appease the people that were around me, right? I was never doing it for myself.
I was never going, I need to be a better husband. I need to be a better father. I need to be a better friend and and actually make something of myself. It was these people want me to do this. I'm gonna do this to get them off my back for a time and then I can go right back to what I'm doing once I kind of, you know, smooth the rough waters out just a little bit. Yeah, the yo-yoing.
That's a great uh a great way to describe that. Right. So, you go on that threemonth tour after the first show, um come back to Nashville and then are you just like are you still on Broadway playing covers or what does your life look like? like give me an example or or like a feel for what what life looked like when you came back from that tour. So like I I go out and and we do this thing and I think, oh man, I'm going to be a star. Like this is my break.
This is where everything happens. And because of the problems I was having that I didn't know other people could see. That really put a halt on folks in the industry wanting to work with me because they're going, "Man, we've seen this guy like he's a little unpredictable. We don't know. we don't know who's who we're going to get. Once I got to stage, I was always okay.
But so I I really went back to playing Broadway again. I went out and did some dates. I was starting to go out and play acoustic shows. Me and a guitar player would go out and do some stuff, but never anything consistent. And that leads you to the next television show. Yep.
So Barry called me again and that was in 2012, I believe. 2011 12 somewhere in that that CMT Next. CMT's Next Superstar. Yeah. CMT next. That was 2011, I think, when you you end up I'll fast the story is you win that, right?
Yeah. Were the life the complications and all the extra stuff and and I don't know how much you want to share with that for for listeners of the hard living that you're talking about, was that hindering like were they hesitant to bring you on the show in the first place? No, because I had been in a pretty good place for long enough that I had it together. So, I went through a season of, you know, um, substance abuse and then it really turned to to alcoholism for the remainder and dabbled in some other stuff, but never got back in anything hard. So, I was able to at least keep myself together enough to perform and and do my job. I I got that opportunity.
Barry called me again, was like, "Hey, we have a show." I was like, "I don't think I want to do it. I don't want to be a reality show guy. Like I don't I just don't want to do that. It doesn't seem genuine to me. And my wife's like, "What else are you doing?"
Like, what else do you like? You're playing Broadway. I mean, uh, you know, like she kind of brought some reality a reality check of like you're not a superstar. Like you're not something grand and you know that you going to do another show. So anyway, I went and did it. Um, that was that was a great experience.
That was a that was more reality show based. So they filmed inside a house we were staying in and I won that. That led to a record deal with Warner Brothers. I was uh we did a Luke Bryan tour. So Luke Bryan and myself and Lee Bryce and Josh Thompson. We went out.
Same same type of tour. It was 30 to 40 dates about 3 months. How big? This is 2011 2012. How big is Luke Bryan at the time? So he's starting to play college size arenas at that time.
So they were big. They were the biggest thing that I had ever played consistently. Um Charlie had about the same amount of people at his outdoor event that he did, but that was a one-off, right? It was one show with Charlie and then that didn't happen again until the after the CMT show from your the vibe and your music like Luke Luke Bryan kind of gets the like pop country tag thrown on him. And so like when they were selecting artists, you know, like how did were you hesitant with that or were you like, "Hey, sign me up. Let's go rip it."
That was part of the deal. So it didn't matter. I didn't have much of a say in that. Um and and Luke, man, he's such a nice guy. I'm I'm not a I'm not a personal fan of his style of music, but that doesn't take away from um the guy that he is. The guy is solid, man.
He was he was so good to us, and he actually helped We were out in a van. We were in a minivan for the first couple weeks and he worked it out that we could get on one of the buses and he made sure we always had food and just just a good guy. I mean, he gave his bunk up one night for um my guitar player. Like, he's a good dude. He really is. And that's why he's had, you know, the success that he's had and and all that.
But so, so yeah, they they put me on that. And and again, like it's been this this ongoing yo-yo thing, right, where like something good would start to happen and I would self- sabotage, right? So I go like, "Oh, this is starting to get good." I had not been drinking for a long for for quite a few months at that point, probably a year. I had I had stopped drinking. That tour kind of allowed me to dabble in it just a little bit.
After that tour is when it got the darkest for me. Um after that was over, we kept going out on the road. Um we obviously weren't playing to thousands of people. We were playing to, you know, 200 a night, but it got my drinking, my um you know, my going outside the marriage and all that stuff. It just got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse until 2016. Hey everyone, quick pause in the action to introduce you to Flutterman Von Reese, a true hidden gem in Indiana, especially for all you watch afficionados out there.
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I had a hard time with the record label. Right. So all of this stuff is presented. You have a record deal. You know I'm working on the with the record label simultaneously. I'm out on the road.
I'm seeing what is presented before me. I have an opportunity now to to play in front of these people. Just as much as I was self-sabotaging, I was also self-preserving, self-preserving in the sense that they were pushing music on me, right? They're saying, "Hey, we're I'm going out with an ANR, you know, around Nashville to publishing houses and I'm I'm picking up songs and I'm listening to them and and they're telling me, you need to do this. This song is what's going to work. This is what's working on radio."
And I kept arguing with them going, "I can't do that. I can't sell that. I'm not selling myself out for a dollar. I I won't do that because it's not genuine to me. I'm not a salesman. If I were, I've had a lot of friends that have had a lot of success because they were good at doing whatever it took to reach the next level.
And I I just wouldn't play that game. I wasn't good at that. So, my ANR had got fired. I was still at Warner Brothers. And we were getting ready to release a project solo. So, I'd been at Warner for two years.
The tour that we done with Luke Bryan was well in the past. We had been out doing our own shows, starting to play some more original songs, realizing what works for me. So, I was fixing to release one of the first um EPs that we did, which had E on it, and Chasing Stardust and Feather in her halo and that stuff. They're like, "You need to make sure that Warner knows about this cuz if you put this out and it does well, they're going to try to pick it up and they're going to try to right then they'll own it because you're under contract with them." So, I went in and met with Espo. John Espazito was the president at the time and I said, "Hey, is there any way I can get out of this deal?"
And he said, "Absolutely. It won't be a problem. You don't have an ANR. I don't want to hold you back." So mean um the ANR is an artist representative. So they're they're my point person.
They're my point of contact inside the building at Warner. So I didn't have that. And Warner had most record labels have two to four ANRs and they're handling all the artists that are at that label. They're helping them find songs, make sure their projects get done. anything that's on the recording label side of they help facilitate all those things. And so anyway, Espo said, "Man, you you're free and clear."
Um, I'll have a attorney write up the letter. And you know, that was 115 grand that they had put into recording that they had it was a small advancement that they had gave me at the beginning of it, which for them is a tax write off, but for me was a huge relief to go, man, I don't have to pay back $115,000. So, I was able to walk away from that and and and then we put out that project and it it didn't do much, you know, it it um we sold it on the road. I was work I was putting it out through a online distribution tune CD Baby, something like that. At the end of 2016, a company out of Fort Worth, Texas, Smith Music Group, had heard my stuff. They flew out to meet with me.
Um and we did the whole deal on a handshake because I was nervous about signing with someone. And Rick said, "Man, just give us three months. If uh if we're working well, great. If we're not, great." So, for the last since 2016, we've worked together on a handshake and it's been great. And and that was when So, I mean, obviously, you're you're you know, some of your biggest songs are from that project.
So, you put it out. It doesn't really do a whole lot. When was the inflection point that really like, you know, took that to the next level? So, end of 2016, I was tired of I was tired of what where I was at in life. I was tired of how I was living, yada yada. It I was in New Mexico and I got up early one morning, got grabbed a cup of coffee, went out, smoked cigarette, and I started a conversation with God that changed the rest of my life up to this point.
And for the first time, I was honest with God. I wasn't going to hold back. I wasn't going to pretend. And I told him, I said, "Look, I don't doubt your existence. I don't doubt you're real. I don't doubt Christ.
Like all of those things are easy for me to to believe. Um that wasn't my struggle. My struggle is with believing that you love me. So I'll give you a few months and if my life's not different, then I'll go right back to what I'm doing right now. I don't just for the first time I was actually honest with him to go I'll give you I'll give you my life, you know, and I'll do it honestly. So anyway, you know, a few months goes by and I noticed a drastic internal difference in myself.
One of the stipulations I put on that conversation was I'm never going to tell anybody anything I've ever done. So don't ever ask me to do that because that's that's off the table. At the end of 2017, I was put into a position where I either had to be honest with my wife for the first time, truly honest, or I had to essentially revert back to how I was living before. And so I sat her down and I was like, you know, she had seen she had seen this song and dance before, right? Like I had been like, "Oh, I'm going to get better." You know, that was a that was an ongoing thing in our marriage for the majority of it.
So at the end of 2017, I sat her down and I was like, "Look, here's everything I've ever done ever in our marriage from the time that we were married up until this point. anytime I've stepped out of the marriage, anytime I've done anything that was a like a direct hurt to you, right? Um, and that was that was about a 8-month conversation that that that took place. But during that time is when I had been with Smith Music for a little over a year at at this point. And uh E just hit it. It just it hit during that time.
And I remember man, I remember specifically I was going upstairs for a couple hours a day every day during that eight months going, "God, search my heart. I want to get everything out of here. I want to be transparent with my wife. I don't want anybody to have anything on me." And so going through that, I remember like what can I do? What can I do?
What can I do for my career? Is there anything I can do? Like how? And I'm thinking and praying and asking and seeking and doing all this crap. And uh I remember in my like inside I had this internal voice that that said, "You'll not point your finger at anybody but me." I don't really know what that means.
So in 2018, we we pushed the song to secondary radio because we we saw like it's doing pretty good. Like we're making a good a decent living now. uh my wife didn't have to work anymore. Um I wasn't having to tour. I was, you know, being a dad, being a husband, being things that most normal people just are on their own. I was able to to learn how to be those things.
And um so we pushed the song to secondary radio and man, all of our numbers, all of our analytics, everything just flatlined. It didn't die, but it just flatlined. And I was like, man, like we put so much effort into this. We put money, a bunch of money. We we bought a sprinter van, went out to these radio stations and like did our thing and for a few months everything just stayed just same thing, man. I was upstairs and I'm I'm frustrated and I'm I'm talking to God and I'm like, man, what the freak's going on?
Like, I've done all this work and I put all this effort in and blah blah blah. And when I finally got quiet and quit my moaning, that same that same internal voice I heard again and said, "You'll I already told you once. You'll only point your finger at me." And I was like, "Fine. That's that's what I'll do." And so since then, it's it's God really put me into a position that I can't take the credit for the success of the songs that we've had because we didn't put any money into it.
We didn't we've not marketed anything. Other artists have asked Smith Music that are there like, "What are you guys doing with Matt?" You know, I want to do the same thing. And Rick and DJ are like, "Man, we don't know." Um, he claims it's God. So, if that's if that's what it is, then that's what it is.
But, um, he's either right about it or he's lying about it cuz we've not done anything to to push that. So, God's kind of put me in that position that I can't lie about it. Yeah. And for the scope of like when you talk about things start taking off like E has a hundred million streams now on Spotify. Yeah. Right.
Like like that's taking off off. Right. And you're saying it's not from like I think you see and you hear stories of like industry and like you know making certain people blow up that have the look, the image this that and the other thing like you're saying man like when you kind of took a step back and just you know let God do his thing u he puts you in the position. I I do want to touch on man you you got to sit down and have that that eightmonth ongoing conversation with your wife like that has to be u I mean just a a wild difficult challenging emotional time especially for her. So like I said I was put into that position and it was in November of 2016 or sorry 2017. It was before the holidays came around and I sat her down and like I said I just said here's everything I've ever done.
I there's going to be a lot of things I don't remember. I wasn't in my right mind. If you want to know, then I'll tell you everything. And my wife is one of the most honest, transparent, blunt um individuals that I know. And that's what she needs because that's how she is. And she was like, "I want to know everything.
I don't care. I I don't care. Like, just tell me." It was like every couple of weeks, right? I'm going upstairs and I'm I'm spending some time like reading the Bible and I'm and I'm praying and I'm getting to know God. I'm getting to know myself.
I was constantly asking him like search my heart. Like I need everything in here to come out. And so every couple weeks I have to go back to her again and be like hey there was this other time and I was here and this happened and you know and dude I did this for eight months. I mean, it was a eight, nine month every few weeks. And I was getting I was getting pissed, man. And I went to God.
I'm like, "Look, dude. I'm doing what I said I would do. Um, I'm keeping up my end of the deal here, but I feel like you're not quite doing that." And I had this last thing I was holding on to. I held on to that for for probably four or five weeks. And I'm like, "Dude, I'm not going back to her again."
Like this is like pulling the band-aid off, scratching the wound, pouring salt on it, like and then pointing and laughing, you know? It would just It sucked. It It was It sucked. There's no other There's no other way to say it. And so I held on to this thing, just kept going and and searched my heart. Search my heart.
Search my heart. Nothing else came up. So I went to her and I was like, "Hey." Laid it out on the table. We went that afternoon. We went to get some tacos from his taco shop.
And when we were walking in, there was a baby shoe on the ground. And I was like, "Wouldn't that be funny if you were pregnant?" And she was like, "Ah, I'm not pregnant." Get home that night, she's like, "Hey, you know what? It's been a few days. You know, I'm a little bit late, which is not unnormal for me, but would you mind running to the drugstore?"
So, I did. And she was pregnant. So, that night, I'm just getting back into really doing social media stuff. But at that time I had I had stepped away from it completely. I wasn't touching and I wasn't doing it. But I got on that night and there's a guy who's a evangelist I guess like a traveling minister and he had made a post and he said today is 88 of 18 and 8 in the Bible stands for new beginnings.
And it was like this this pressure this relief like I don't even know how to explain it. Like it was like something was lifted. And I looked at my wife and I said, "I'm honest. Like, I'm transparent. Everything I have to tell you is done. No man has anything on me anymore.
I we can be in any situation, any setting. Anybody can tell any story they want, and I'm not going to be like, "Oh man, I hope they don't say this or I hope they don't mention this." You know, which I live that way for so many years. There's something about like it's why I started doing the YouTube stuff that I'm doing and I'm trying to gear it for men. It's not just for men. Like I mean women can benefit from it as well, but like there's something about a man getting back to or a person getting back to ground zero.
Like getting back to quit putting on a front. Quit trying to be and pretend like you're something. Quit trying to make the world think that your life is better than it is. Like just just die to yourself essentially and get everything out. Like admit that you're a screw-up, that you have problems, whether you follow Christ or whether you don't. like that was my route and I know for a fact that that works.
But if that's not something somebody's going to do, like just get honest. Like be honest with your family, be honest with people around you and rebuild your life from that point. Because rebuilding like on a solid foundation, it's the only way to do it, right? It's like we're building a house right now and if we didn't have and any house you build, if you don't have a solid foundation for it, the house could be beautiful. It could look awesome, but when a wicked storm comes through, it's going to knock that thing down. And it's no different for our personal life.
Like, if we can build on something solid when that stuff arises, when bad situations happen, like it I don't know, we just walk through it easier, you know? It's we're not trying to hide something of like I'm having to deal with the pressures of life plus hide the life that I'm living over here. And like that's just freaking hard, man. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. Well, give us a look into like the career trajectory, right?
You know, 88 of 18, you're honest, you make these changes. How does your career arc kind of go from there? And like whether it's streams or downloads or albums or whatever it might be. So, everything was still it was still growing and and we have ups and downs like we have some months that are way better, some months that aren't as good, but everything's been really consistent. And it started actually what's crazy and I've learned I've learned with God is like he knows our heart, right? So he knew the direction I was headed.
He knew I was going to stay the course and everything had started shifting months before I ever came fully clean with everything, right? Like I had had the initial conversation, but I hadn't got everything out. But everything was already starting to work that direction. And honestly, man, I I had no intention of ever going back on the road again. I was like, I'm done with that. Like, if God writes me a personal letter is what I used to tell my family.
Like, if he writes me a personal letter, mails it to me, I might consider then. Was it last year? Last year was the first time we did dates since like 201617. I think I did one in 2018, but hadn't done anything, man. And I wasn't planning on it. uh we we were making enough from the streaming that we were able to live and survive and have a have a good life.
And my wife was like, "You know what, man? Like, you need to you probably need to get back out there and and tell your story. Like, you need to get back out." And because there's a lot of people that may never go to church. They may never, you know, step foot in that setting. But if you go meet them where they're at, just singing your songs, not trying to preach to them and and tell a snippet of your story during that 90minute 60 to 90 minute show that we do, you can help a lot of people.
And I was like, okay, it's great. She's like, I really think you should focus on men. Like I think that men need to get back to manhood and manhood, sorry. And this was all a few years ago. And I'm like, yeah, that's kind of stupid. I don't think that that's I don't think that's the that's the route I want to take.
So, we went back out last year, did some dates, um, selling tickets, and we did okay. We were getting, you know, 100 to 200 people out, which I thought was awesome that people were buying tickets to come watch a show. I haven't been out for years, so we're trying to kind of rebuild that thing. I went on a hunting trip a few weeks ago and and it was a group of guys, right? And they invited me to come out to tell my story, play a few songs, but like we just want to hear your testimony. We've heard a little bit of it and I think it can benefit.
And when I did that, it I was there for a week. There was two separate groups of hunters that came in and just the effect that of what happened there with these guys. And I I left there and I called my wife and I was like, man, I there's something about men. Like I want to help men. Like I want my music to reach out and then be able to get men back to manhood, like leading their families and and and just being men again, you know? like we've deass like I don't know emasculated men I feel like in this country via the church via pol politics wherever you stand on all that crap.
She was like don't you remember we had that conversation? I told you that a few years ago and I was like no I don't think you did. I think that's my idea. I think I came up with that one on my own. Um so that's kind of where we're at now, man. It's like we're we have dates this year.
We're going out and doing dates this year and I'm I'm trying to grow the YouTube side of stuff. Not just for the spreading of my music, but like for this trying to help people, you know, like if my music can open the door to get somebody out of a dark place or or or get them back to, like I said, like back to back to zero so they can start building from there. That's kind of the goal in this whole thing, man. Really, for me. So, where where did you play in 24? And and I know you have a fun Indiana show coming up in 25.
Yeah. Um, so our big market is Texas. Um, so we did some dates out there. That was our best selling. Um, we there was one place that we almost sold out. We were just a few tickets shy of selling out.
Uh, we played Atlanta, um, which is surprisingly a decent market for us. We had quite a few people there. Um, we hadn't came to the Midwest and I know the Midwest I I knew going back to there. Um, I used to play Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia. Illinois was like a that was our main our main travel focus. We didn't do anything up there.
We played Texas. We played Atlanta. Uh we went to Washington. Um played a festival up in Washington. Just kind of testing. I bet that that uh eastern side of Washington State, they uh they like a little some country western music out there.
They do, man. They had a big It was called Farm Jam and it was the most beautiful setting, dude. It's like down in this valley of like hay fields and like ranches everywhere and these huge mountains all around, you know? you're sitting in the bowl of these mount. It was It was freaking awesome. We're testing the market.
So, we're testing We were testing last year. We're testing again this year to see like like we're playing um our our first shows in Mississippi and March. Uh then we're in Texas again in April. We're going back to Georgia. We have Indiana, Illinois, we have West Virginia, we have a Dayton, Ohio. And we're just checking to see like where are we doing the best, where's the most people coming out.
And we're kind of focusing on those markets trying to like see. So like we go to Mississippi. I've never been there. We're going to see does it do well? Do we get people coming out? Because if we don't, let's not waste our effort going there cuz cuz if things take off where touring gets better, more people are coming out.
We can come back to those smaller markets, you know, where more people are going to want to come out. The more popularity you gain, right? And the more your music reaches, the more people come out. So, um, yeah, we're playing The Strand in Shelbyville. Um, which is going to be So, when is that show? Oh, man.
I knew you'd ask. Um, I'm like looking it up right now. June. Is it June? August 16th, 7:30 Saturday at the Strand in Shelbyville. Yep.
August. That's right. Yep. Did you play that growing up? I played there one time. So, I played there one time after the CMT show if I'm not mistaken.
There's a big show they do on the circle that we played after the um like a festival that we played after Nashville Star. But yeah, so we're hoping that you know ticket sales go great there. That's home kind of a hometown show. So we I know we've got a lot of tickets already sold. I think it was Did you just I was going to say did you just increase the venue there? I thought I saw that it was sold out.
It could be at this point. Um Illinois was sold out. Gotcha. I got to get on it and I got to get get my tickets for that. Yeah. Yeah.
it. I think it'll sell out before August comes around. I have a good feeling about that. We'll sell that out. We sold Illinois out. We're getting ready to sell out just north of Houston in Conroe.
There's a place that uh we played last year there. So, we're we're we're building that thing up, man. And and it's cool to see like it's it's great to be back out playing. I've got stipulations that I've set in place to keep me from from veering off, you know? Um you have to be able to bring your kids. Um, it has to be a venue that I don't care if they sell alcohol, that's not a struggle for me anymore.
But, uh, not even something I do, but you have to be able to bring your family, right? Like, if you can bring your kids into the place, uh, I'll play. If I have the affordability to bring a family member, if I can't bring somebody from my family and as a fan, you can't bring your family, I'm not going to play those places. So that'll just think, man, families need to get out, do more stuff, and going to shows is a great way for everybody to burn off energy. Like kids can come out. Everybody loves music, you know, and if you have a place where like you can bring your kids, where everybody's not getting, you know, trying to just see how drunk they can get before the night's over.
But yeah, have a drink or two, have a good time, enjoy yourself, but um people are there to hear the music, you know. Man, I love that. And I think uh I'm sure that Shelby County, right, the the home the home county will show out for your show in August. And I think that's I hope so, man. I'm looking forward to being back here. I'm going to put it on the calendar and and I'll get a crew and we'll come down cuz I mean it it was wild.
I had no idea that you were from Indiana originally, but I've heard your music before. Like I, you know, Spotify shuffle and things like that. And one of my buddies sends Indiana boy to me and I'm like, "Wait a second." and I start putting it together and I reach out and end up like I mean I think that's just so awesome to see people with who's your roots uh doing these inspiring things and this like getting back out there on the road like it just worked out that you were coming to Indiana in a couple months anyway. That's awesome. Quick pause in the action.
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Head over to Instagram, Nate Spangle, and subscribe. Now, let's get back to the episode. I know we're we're coming to the end, and I have some fun like rapid fire, like lightning round kind of questions for you as we uh as we wrap up here. So, the first question's our younger year segment. It's brought to you by our friends at OR Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indianapolis, helping develop young business leaders across the state.
So, Matt, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? Be yourself. Don't change who you are because you think that's what people want you to be. I love that. I think especially given your, you know, the when you move to Nashville and there's this mold of country music stars and you go through that and you learn those lessons. I think like being yourself is, you know, the most powerful thing people can do.
Absolutely. I tried for years to be anything that I thought would make me more successful and it doesn't work cuz eventually your colors, you know, your colors are going to show. Yeah. And isn't it funny, right, where it's like when people try so hard to be something that they're not and then when they start, you know, you finally be comfortable with who you are and and then, you know, turns out people like authenticity and sometimes it starts to work there. it. That's what has worked best for me.
When when Yeah. When you're real and people know you're real, they people are drawn to that. You know, we live in a world of a lot of fake. With with social media, you can be whatever, act like whatever you want. But when somebody's just real and honest, it that's that's human. That's being a human.
What artist has had the biggest influence on you and your music? Johnny Cash, Whan Jennings, and Merl Haggard are probably probably the three biggest artists that um their music has affected me, their life story has affected me in them just being real. You know, Cash was who he was and that's why he was as big as he was. He wasn't the greatest singer ever, but people knew that uh he didn't pretend. You know, he wore his his troubles on his sleeve. Um Whan just had a cool factor about him.
There was just something cool about Whan. Um, and his music resonated with me like that that kick drum, you know, that in the 70s he did something that nobody was doing. He was mixing rock music with country music and just the songwriting of Haggard like he just he told the truth. And I read his autobiography when I was in high school and learned that most of those songs 90% of them are either true or they're there's a lot of truth in them. And and when you know that about somebody and you go, you're not just singing something to sing it. you're singing your life, you know that I don't know that means something.
Yeah. Oh, man. This the Yeah. That raw real emotion. It's like you see a lot of like the more outlaw country western music today where it's that they're pulling on past experiences and and I think you talked about oh man in one of your commentary albums of like it's not necessarily that you've lived all this but you get in a room with three people and you combine all of your life experiences into this this piece of art and this song and man that's powerful 100%. Willie Nelson said one time, they said, "Why do you like songwriting so much?"
And he said, "Because I can write my life story in a code that nobody understands but me." And I was like, "Yeah, that's true. You can you can get out what's in here. You can get it out. There's there's little bits of truth. Some are more true than others, but there's little bits of truth in and all of it, I think."
What's your favorite lyric from any country song? Live for I think the name of it is Live Forever. It's a Billy Joe Schaefer song. Just that whole song, like that whole song to me is uh great lyrically. I'm not gonna be here forever. When I leave, my music will still be here.
Uh, don't forget about me. Know that I'll always love you. It's kind of the gist of the the overall song. But that's a that's a good one, man. When you're performing, what's your favorite song to perform live? Today, probably in the last couple years, is either where I've been or or E.
And that's because last year for the first time, you know, we do Where I've been in the set. E is obviously our last song. That's the that's the big song everybody wants to hear. So we do Where I've been a few songs before that and dude the first time we were playing live again and people are singing back the chorus and I was like this is a little surreal like I never have had that I've seen it done at at concerts you know had other never for myself and so that there's something about that like where we allow the crowd to sing back and it's just it's fun man it's it's a it's fun song to play and that has to be just like an incredible Cible experience, right? You hear whether it's 100, 1,000, just singing back like something that came out of your head that you put down and recorded and you cut and man, that just it makes the hair in the back of my neck stand up. It's it's a it's a like I said, it's a surreal a very surreal feeling.
It It's a humbling feeling. I'll say that. Yeah. To know that this music is reaching people. Yeah, man. What's your favorite venue to play in Nashville?
Um, I've only played it a few times, but probably the Bluebird Cafe. It is a singer songwriter place. You go in there to listen to the music. Broadway was great for what it was. All the places down there play their fears. It helped to make a living.
I didn't enjoy it. Um, you're you're not People aren't listening. You know, you're playing for a party. You're playing for an atmosphere. And on the road, like we travel with a three-piece, we travel with an acoustic guitar, a cohone player, and a bass player. So, it's a very broke down show.
um for that reason. So people people that are coming out for my shows at least have said over the years like ah the band was fun like they're they're great players blah blah blah blah but like they drown you out. we come here to hear you sing. And I was like, okay, how can we do that? Still make the people that want the band thing happy and and keep the people that are really coming out for the singer songwriter aspect of stuff. Like, how do we kind of merge those two things?
And I think we figured out a great way of doing it where we have some, you know, there's some background music going on, but people can still hear the lyrics, they can still hear the stories, and and that's what we're trying to do. I I think that's powerful. I actually want they you brought the the thought, right? You're sing you're performing on Broadway. You know, I don't know, you're doing four hour shifts. Do you make enough to make a living if you just perform on Broadway?
You can. Um, we were for a couple of years I played I was playing eight hours a day. So, I would sing seven days a week. Uh, six and seven days a week. Yeah. I'd do a 6 to 10 and then a 10 to two or a 2 to six in the afternoon and then a 6 to 10 or sometimes you do a split double where you do like a six a 2 to six you have 6 to 10 off and then you play 10 to two that night.
Did that for a long long long time and um I mean it builds your chops up for sure. Like it it definitely builds up your uh your ability to be on stage to interact with people when you're up there and and it builds that comfort level. Um, and it teaches you to to still play when people aren't paying attention, which is a very hard thing for me to do. Um, I start getting a little bit frustrated when I'm like, "All right, listen. If you guys, you know, I've never pulled a Jamie Johnson where I'm like, "You guys ain't paying attention, I'm out." Um, I don't have that status.
Um, but I appreciate I appreciated the video I saw him where he did that and I was like, you guys come to listen to a show and you're not listening. Uh, and he's a singer songwriter at heart. So, I get it. I I get it. All right, final two questions left. There's kind of bring it back to your your Indiana roots.
One, um, what influence did Shelby County, Fairland, Indiana, have on on your music career? Being in a rural area, I think, has helped me a lot. It's given me inspiration to write from. Like, I have good roots. I came from a great family. My parents were were awesome parents.
They were believers. like all that stuff. Um, but just being in an honest setting with honest people, you know? I mean, people that I grew up with, they were who they were and you liked them or you didn't, but it was preocial media. It was pre- Instagram and pre all of this stuff. And and those those old farmers out there, they just are who they are.
And uh that has an impact on people. At least it did for me. Final question. Uh we ask this to every guest that comes through. So, when you're back in Indiana, what is a hidden gem in Indiana that we need to check out? Frosty Boy.
What is that? Frosty Boy is a place I believe used to it was only open in the summer. It's in New. They've got great tenderloin sandwiches and they got great milkshakes. Frosty Boy in Newal. Temporarily closed.
Only open in the summer. Yeah. All right. We're going to have to go over there. Oh, that ice cream does look pretty good. And they're if you're a tenderloin fan, you know, when when I grew up in Indiana, you go to the fairs and you get the tenderloins that are and then your bun is like this, you know, that's a tenderloin.
And you come to the state fairs in in Tennessee or other places we've played, you know, through the years. And I'm like, I'd like a tenderloin, you know, sandwich. And they bring out this little this little piece of meat like this. And I'm like, that's not it. Where's the rest of it? Like I shouldn't even be able to get to the bun, you know?
The bun should be tomorrow. Yeah. You got to take like two or three bites before you you hit any bun or lettuce. 100%. That's how it should be. I love it, Matt.
Man, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. And for those that don't, you need to go follow uh the YouTube channel where you're putting out a bunch of um inspiring content about, you know, getting back to your roots. And I think I just watched like, you know, it was like five lessons that men need to know. And they're I mean, they're very very practical. And it's like it's interesting that that some, you know, young men grow up and don't hear those things from grandpa or don't hear those things from their dads. We have a father, this is a big fatherless generation, right?
Men are they're either they don't have a dad um at all or they don't know him or they have a dad that's so busy at work or on their cell phone or whatever that they're not being raised properly. So, what I'm trying to do is just create a place where people can come get practical advice. It's not something like it's not making huge changes, right? It's little bitty changes and just things that you can do that that are pretty simple that don't take a lot of effort, but you start adding those things up and I think it makes you a better man. I love it, man. Well, hey, we'll uh we'll catch you at the show.
It's uh August 16th. That's a Saturday at 7:30 at the Strand in Shelbyville. I'm excited. I'm going to get a crew together and we'll come down for that. And man, just keep keep up the great work. Keep doing everything you're doing and sharing your story.
It's very very inspiring and you're making a lot of uh Hoosiers here in Indiana proud. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all of my gear recommendations atwater. com.
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